Sculpture in the Park

One of the sunniest days of the year was the occasion of a trip out to the Duke of Devonshire's modest little twelve acre garden on his estate at Chatsworth House. There's a special exhibition of monumental sculptures on until November which looked enticing in the Guardian review. Most of it turned out to be a combination of modernist tin can frippery and heavy-duty bronze pieces which could have come from public statues commissioned by Stalin. I was glad to see some organic-looking forms by architect Zaha Hadid, and a huge piece of pop-art by Robert Indiana was attracting a lot of attention. But the the most stylish piece of man-made work I saw all day was this new Mercedes S class in the car park.